Monday, 25 April 2011

To break up the math laughs I've decided to post about another project I've been working on recently. Maths in the City is a project funded by the EPSRC and run by the Department of Continuing Education at the University of Oxford. Essentially, it is the brain child of Marcus du Sautoy who wanted to show everyone that maths is not simply sums in a book, it is a crucial part of the world we live in.

Below is a short piece I filmed in New College, Oxford. In the garden is a mound with quite unusual properties.

Here is an idea for free. In Wadham College, Oxford, there are Penrose Tilings right outside the bar. Nobody, as yet, has done a piece on them. If you think you could produce an interesting activity using the ideas behind tiling then post a Site and enter the competition.

The mascot of this project is called Dave (or Davina). If you enter a Site to the competition try and smuggle a Dave into the scene. Below are a couple that I produced when I took Dave on a trip to London. To hear more about the project, and why the mascot is called Dave, have a listen to this recent Math/Maths podcast, for an interview with Rachel Thomas (one of the organisers).

An idea not communicated can scarcely be said to exist.

I am a researcher of mathematical biology at the University of Oxford. Although I now do mathematics as a career I remember how hard maths was when I first started. I also remember what caused things to make sense. I try to relay these insights to everyone, with the hope that they, too, will understand.
Home page:
http://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/~woolley/index.htm